institutions

Institutions

To fully understand television crime drama, you should understand that undustry behind the programmes. Producing and broadcasting a television crime drama is a highly technical process that requires a vast array of resources and equipment. Programmes have to be written, filmed, edited and involve hundreds of people in the production process.
For this reason, broadcasting has tended to be done by large media corporations who have those resources. Let's look at some of the major television instituations and their contribution to crime drama.

Terrestrial channels

BBC
The Broadcasting Corporation provides public service broadcasting to the United Kingdom. It is the largest broadcaster in the world as is funded by a licence fee that raises about 3 billion pounds a year. Unlike commercial television, it doesn't rely on advertising revenues, but operations under the public broadcasting remit to 'educate, inform and entertain'. In terms of crime drame, the BBC has been responsible for the production of a wide range of successful shows, as well as importing a number of American crime dramas.
Recent BBC productions have included;
New Tricks, Inspector George Gently, Wallander, Waking the Dead, Sherlock, Five Days, Criminal Justice and Luther.

ITV
The ITV channels - in particular ITV1 and ITV3 - show a wide range of crime dramas, including the recently cancelled and long-running The Bill. Classic crime examples include Foyle's War, Agatha Christie's Poirot, Maigret, Miss Marple Inspector Morse and A Touch of Frost.
ITV also has an interest in new crime drama, commissioned from the UK, such as Identity, Whitechapel, DCI Banks: Aftermath, Law and Order: UK, Murderland and also those acquired abroad eg Numb3rs.
ITV also hosts the Crime Thriller Awards on ITV3, which includes the People's Detective, where ITV3 viewers vote for their favourite. In 2010, the winner was Foyle from Foyle's War.

Channel 4 and More 4
Channel 4 shows some crime dramas, few of which attract vast audiences. Some, however, have been critically acclaimed a attract niche audiences eg Without a Trace, Southland and The Closer.

Five and Five USA
Five and its sisiter channel Five USA are well known for their raft of US crime dramas. These channels were taken over by new owner, Richard Desmond is 2010. He has said that his channels will continue to give priority to this genre, although this may change in the moblie media world. Programmes include: True Justice, Justified, the CSI franchise, The Mentalist, Law and Order and Dark Blue.

theory

Audience
uses and gratifications- explain how we 'use' the media and what 'gratifications' (pleasures) we receive.
Hypodermic Needle Theory- early theory that suggests we are injected with ideas that we believe to be true.

Narrative
Todorov- 3 parts to a narrative (equilibrium, disruption, resolution)
Propp- character types (hero, villain, princess, donor, helper, etc.)
Levi-straus- binary opposites narratives feature conflicts between opposing forces (good/evil etc)
Barthes- narratives involve enigmas (questions/puzzles to be solved by the audience)

Enigmas for crime dramas

Roland BARTHES is a theorist who looked into narratives (storylines). One conclusion he came to was that all narratives have ENIGMAS. These are puzzles/questions which have to be solved. Typically these are questions that are raised which the audience are encouraged to think about.

Crime Drama Characters

Stock Characters:
• Hero Cop: the main character in a crime drama who solves the crime and is always on the right side of law. E.g. Horatio Caine from CSI, Nick Rowan (Heartbeat).
• Heroine Cop: a female version of the main character who solves the crime and is on the right side of the law most of the time. E.g. Inspector Kate Longton (Juliet Bravo).
• Anti – hero: A main character in a dramatic or narrative work who is characterized by a lack of traditional heroic qualities, such as idealism or courage. E.g. Dexter Morgan (Dexter).
• Quirky Detectives: Detectives in Crime Drama’s which are quirky and not so experienced. E.g. Robert Goren (Law and Order: Criminal Intent)
• Bad tempered but brilliant detectives: Detectives which are very good detectives and on the right side of the law however they are bad tempered and in many cases they may be old in age. E.g. Inspector Morse.
• Rookie: Inexperienced and new to the show. E.g. Andy McNally (Rookie Blue).
• Buddy Partners: characters which are partners and they work together and help each other to solve a crime for example Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. They have a good relationship and are always on each other’s soldier to help them solve the crime out.
• Grumpy, world-weary superior officer: Bad tempered characters, end of career. E.g. Captain Cragen (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit)
• Forensic scientists/pathologists/other medical professionals: Detectives who solve crimes using forensics for example finger prints and other things they may find and analysing every situation. They usually tend to use science to explain the crime. E.g (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)
• Psychology experts/ consultants/ helpers: Investigators and Detectives who use mind to investigate into the crime, their knowledge is used more than forensic science. E.g. Sherlock Holmes.


Officers of the law:
Codes and Conventions:
• What style of detective are they? What is their role? Who do they work for?

• Sherlock: Sherlock has a genius mind and can figure out and do an investigation straight away, although sometimes he is on the wrong side of the law which makes him an anti-hero. He is also very self centred, Lacks in social graces and Humorous. Sherlock is also superior towards the police, without problems to solve, it will tear itself to pieces (needs problems to live).

• Horatio Caine: Horatio Caine is all about getting the criminal. He is single minded and sometimes may be forceful. He is very intelligent and sometimes can be a bit cheesy with his ‘one-liners’. He is also a very heroic character with high morale and above all he is a calm character who is on the right side f the law and does his job very well. He is also very domineering and superior. Criminals in CSI range from everyday suburban parents to sinister gang bosses. Similarly the victims could be high profile officials or everyday teenagers.

Audience:
• What is the appeal of this character – who will they appeal to

• Sherlock: Sherlock appeals to the audience because he has a talent no one else has, it is a very good original idea and no other television detective works like Sherlock. He appeals to a varied audience for different reasons for example: Family audiences because families will watch Sherlock and enjoy watching a crime drama which is appropriate yet entertaining. Educated audiences would also want to watch this as they would understand exactly what happens in crime scenes however they would like to see something slightly different to their everyday lives yet very similar.

• Horatio Caine: Horatio Caine is a very appealing character to all types of audiences as he sometimes can be funny and brings a bit of a humour to the show however he also has the intelligent character with a high morale which would appeal to adults and teenagers. The audience pleasures at the end of the episode we watched which was ‘Last Stand’ was very challenging as we really wanted to know whether Horatio will kill Memo or not, and we all started guessing what he would do. As teenagers we always like a bit of a challenge for our mind and this makes it very appealing and we get hooked on it.

Representation:
How are they represented – personality, relationships, sub-plot, mise-en-scene
• Sherlock’s intelligence is a very good indicator of a character playing in a crime drama because his mentality is very good and he can figure things out very fast.
There was not a lot of technology used as Sherlock’s intelligence was good enough. The theme of intelligence links to the more intelligent you are the better character of crime drama you’re going to be and this links in well with Sherlock. Cunning in Sherlock is when the taxi driver does not want to get caught. If you do bad things the justice always ends with the bad person in court. The setting, where the whole series was set was in a city which makes it better to watch as it is more modern. There was a lot of flashbacks but mainly on the important bits and when Sherlock was trying to figure something out from the past for example when he was on the back of the taxi he had a flashback of when he first saw Dr Watson and he explains how he could figure out everything. The camera was moving fast when Sherlock was in the urge of finding something out and throughout the whole series it went into a medium pace. The dialogue was when Sherlock was explaining about the women who were laying face down on the floor. Also when Sherlock at the end met the killer and had a conversation with him he was trying to make him take the pill and they kept talking and having a conversation. The montage was 3 people taking pills to commit suicide.

venn diagram

exam tips

14th may- pre release material

14th june- exam

take into the exam;

                             coloured pencils

                             fine liners

                             ruler

• We need to have depth knowledge of 3 crime dramas
• we need to have independent shows you what outside of school
• 2 examples of theorys:
• uses and gratifications- Information, entertainment, personal identity and personal relationships
• propp- hero, princess, villan etc
• Todorov- all naratives follow 3 parts
• equalibrium, disruption, resolution
• Barthes
• Levi-strous- Binary opposites
• good vs bad      -   police vs criminal     -      truth vs lies
• Detailed knowledge of characters
• good understanding of settings
• set peices and iconography
• police cirens
• walkie talky
• bullet proof jackets
• crime scene etc
• jargon - words associated with crime dramas
• MO- modus operandus (the way in which they like to work
• eg for a killer they could stab someone 5 times
• write in role!
• Expectyed to pitch something
• eg. what are you about to read is my fantastic new idea for a crime drama. once you read this you will not be able to wait to see the piolet episode.
• Rationale- why would your crime drama be successful?

CRIME MAGAZINE

Luther

In the latest episode of luther i have watched, the anit hero luther decides to cut off his friendly relationship with criminal alice which the audience didnt want to see however this was the right thing to do.
there was a serial murderer in this episode who brutally tourchers women, luther knew who the man was but the man was to important for the police to catch as he made complaints to the media when they did forcing the police to give up, however luther did not pay attention to this and decided to go and see first hand what he done. This was unconventional of a detective as they usually follow the law. he had evidence but he took it without permission this is against the law.
when it come to it this crime drama follows all the codes and conventions of a usual TV crime drama. the arrest of the criminal is typical and what we expect of the crime dramas, however in this episode we know who was the killer and the detectives do not this is a open narritive we want the detetives to work it out.

Settings

Different crime dramas are set in different places this makes a crime drama more realistic and gives us an insite to what the show is going to be like.

Luther

This crime drama is set in a not so privileged art of London, this makes the story line more realistic and helps the show run smoothly. In this part of London you see a lot of alley ways, in the third episode we watched you can see Luther punch a suspect down an alley in which no one can see him this is typical of this part of London. When a man was beaten up in a dark car park by 'hoodies' this is a conventional place for this type of crime to happen and in addition these kinds of people will live in this area again making the story more realistic. Finally the gritty part of London this show is set in makes the audience get a sence the show will be gritty and violent and maybe a bit gruesome.

CSI: Miami

CSI is set in miami, this area is seen as glamorous and sexy. This is portrayed in the show with up to date technology and 'pretty' characters. With a beautiful setting you can come to the conclusion that the show will be sombre.

Luther as a flawed anit-hero

Luther as a flawed anti-hero

Luther is not your conventional detective, we think of detectives as law abiding citizens however he is not.

• he left a man to die when he had to opportunity to save his life.
• he started a fight with his ex wife's boyfriend for no particular reason, just due to a disagreement which highlights his short temper.
• he met up with the murderer several times outside of his working hours this is not typical sub-ordinate behaviour of people working with the law.
• he went to arrest a murderer alone when he needed back up, this was against the rules of being a detectives as he put his own life at risk.
• he nearly got tempted by the seductive behaviour of a potential murderer.
• personal problems over his profession and the right thing to do.
• blackmail, this is not the right thing to do and against the law. He balckmailed the murderers dad due to child pornography and alice saying they will arrest someone else if he leaves his wife alone.
• broke into a suspects flat meaning the evidence he picked up was irrelevent.

set pieces

1. What iconography is used?
2. What typically happens in the scene?
3. What part does it play in the narrative?
4. What audience pleasures arise from the scene?
5. What language may be used- vocab?

• Interrogations- you expect to see detectives or police with a suspect, maybe a lawyer will be present. Usually in a small room with a table and chairs; a tape recorder on the table. In the scene the detectives will be questioning the suspect asking them questions they already know the answer to normally, they try to catch them out as they think they are lying, the suspect won't give a lot away which will make the detectives irritated. It plays a part in the narrative by giving the detectives site as to who could have committed the crime and how the suspects react coming closer to knowing who committed the crime.The audience is pleasured by this because there is an intense feeling in the interrogation room which creates a feeling of suspense. Language you expect to hear in an interrogation: questions asked from the detectives and the suspect not being co-operative and may become rude and defencive.

• Initial Crime scene investigation- you expect to see forensices, detectives and police in a CSI, with police tape, the dead body, number cards and cameras taking pictures of the scene. Typically people see picture being taken of the scene and evidence being put in bags also detectives begginning to piece together why the murder took place and why it was nessasary. This play a huge part in the marrative because this gives the viewer the first insite into what has happened. The audience use this scene to gather information to help them solve who done the crime a gulity pleasure. Specialised laguage will be used in this scene amoungst the detectives and forensics solving the crime (specialised jargon). this screen shot is an example of the crime scene investiagtion the 'CSI: Miami (stoned cold)' it follows the conventions.

• The chase- you will see people running and maybe cars. Usually a detective or police officer chasing a suspect. Typically the person working for the law is chasing a suspect to arrest them or question them and they are trying to get away. This livens up the crime drama and gives the programme a bit of axtion a break up from the constant talking. The audience will like this scene as is builds up tensions and is 'dangerous' meaning they are watching it on the edge of their scenes as they want the police or detectives to catch up with the suspects and arrest them. No language is usually used in this scene it is normally quiet with music on in the background building tension.

• The confession- this is when the criminal owns up to committing the crime. usually in the scene it is only the detective and the criminal and can be set anywhere. Usually in this scene the criminal bcomes very emotional and started to cry, the camera angle is normally a close up so we can see their face during the confession.This finished off the narrative we now know who committed the crime and who is going to get arrested. This is when the audiences pleaure is at its high, they have been guessing throughout the programme who committed the crime and it has ow come down to finding out who it was, justy like a puzzle and guilty pleasure we shouldn't like it but we do and find it entertaining. Very emotional language is used such as 'i did it' or 'i didn't want to' or 'they pushed me into it'.

• The Autopsy- This is when you see the dead body being examined. You usually see a corroner and a detective maybe. you see a type of lab where you see medical equipment and the dead boldy layed on the bed. This means the detectives can find out more about how the victim died and come closer to who killed them making it an important part or the narrative. This is usually performed in a montage and would get the audience intreeged into what was happeneing without boring them. Specilaise language will be used in this scene about how the victim died (specialised jargon).

• The laboratory- In this scene you would expect to see science equptment such a microscopes and computers. you would find the scientsit maybe talking to the detectives. this is where the scientists uses the forensics to work out whos fingerprints, DNA or blood is on objects as well as seeing if fibres match putting them at the crime scene.